ALBION’S MOLDER STATUE GETS SPRUCED UP

July 24, 2024

Press Release

Albion, MI: He’s 9 feet tall with rippling muscles and has been “hard at work” for 50 years in downtown Albion. And it was time to get this iconic downtown feature cleaned up. The Molder Statue, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Superior Street, was professionally cleaned this summer to mark his golden anniversary. Funds for the restorative cleaning came from money raised from the 2019 “Restore Our Coke Sign Patronicity” campaign, headed by volunteer co-chairs Janet Domingo and Linda Kolmodin.

Domingo has been leading the Molder Statue restoration project. She has been working on revamping this small vest-pocket park across from the Albion post office. She researched professionals who could best clean the prominent downtown landmark as part of the restoration. “It’s not like you could take a volunteer group with scrub brushes and clean the statue,” Domingo said, “It took a professional who knew what process needed to be used to ensure that this downtown landmark wasn’t damaged,” Domingo stated that a special cleaning and waxing technique was employed. “It is amazing what details are now visible in the molder’s face and body,” she said. “The whole statue is now a different color, and it just gleams after 50 years of grime.”

This summer, Domingo arranged for professional restorer Tad McKillop to put his skills to work on cleaning and waxing the American Molder art piece. McKillop is a member of The American Institute of Conservation and is also a sculptor with a studio in Ann Arbor. McKillop studied figurative sculpture at the University of Michigan and earned a master’s in fine arts from the New York Academy of Art. The statue, which depicts a foundry worker pouring a ladle of molten metal, was designed by Edward Chesney and cast in 1974 by Frederick Petrucci. It is a copy of a 1922 statue designed by Frederick Hibbard.  

According to local lore, this statue was based on Albionite John Passmore, a long-time Albion Malleable Iron Company-employee. The inspiration supposedly came from a photograph of him, which appeared in a local newspaper. The American Molder is an “Occupational Monument” designed to be a tribute to the craftsmen and laborers of the Albion community. 

The sculptor was able to portray a non-racial appearance of the molder’s face in order to honor hardworking people of all races employed by the iron companies. Mary and Collins L. Carter presented the statue to the city as a tribute to the many foundry workers throughout the community. Collins Carter was a former president of the Malleable. The 1,700-pound sculpture was unveiled in a public 1975 ceremony. A plaque on the statue’s base contains a quote by James Russell Lowell that reads: “No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is always work and tools to work with, for those who will, and blessed are the thorny hands of toil.”

The Restore Our Coke Sign fundraising campaign focused on three downtown art projects made possible through a Patronicity matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and generous local donations. The campaign successfully raised over $100,000 to restore the iconic Coca-Cola sign. In addition, the campaign funded the commission of a mural to honor the town’s historic foundry heritage and create a Tee-Ball statue and plaque for a garden plot.  

The Albion Community Foundation is the 501 (c) (3) for the funds raised. With additional money raised, holiday decorations for the downtown, including snowflakes, garland, Christmas tree lights, and a star, were purchased. In addition, a handicapped-accessible picnic table was installed in downtown Bournelis Park. The money raised will also provide a maintenance endowment at the Foundation to make sure the three original art projects are protected for the future.

Photo caption: Janet Domingo, co-chair of the Restore Our Coke Sign campaign, admires the American Molder statue’s recent cleaning. The cleaning was the initial phase of a future refurbishing downtown Molder Park. The professional restoration was the first time the iconic statue had been cleaned and waxed in the 50 years since the art piece was gifted to the city in honor of Albion’s foundry heritage. Monies raised from the 2019 fundraising campaign under the auspices of the Albion Community Foundation paid for the long-needed cleaning.